FUTURE OF 'NATIONAL HELP SERVICE' THREATENED DUE TO CRUMBLING CHURCH BUILDINGS


Church leaders have called for urgent government support to protect church buildings after a new report highlighted the UK’s increasing reliance on mainly-volunteer led services including food banks, mental health counselling and youth groups based in churches, chapels and meeting houses.


The House of Good report from the National Churches Trust, the UK’s leading church buildings support charity, has branded the nation’s church buildings a ‘National Help Service’ after finding they provided £12.4 billion worth of essential social and economic support to local communities during the 12 months up until May 2020.


The report found that church buildings are a ready-made network of responsive hubs providing increasing levels of care and wellbeing to local communities throughout the UK. The majority of churches found a way to provide community support during the COVID-19 pandemic but the report warns that many of their buildings are under threat, especially in towns and cities where they deliver the most value, as support for essential maintenance and repair from government and other funding bodies dries up.


About the report


For the first time, a detailed economic study has measured the extent of the social and economic value the UK’s 40,300 church buildings provide to the nation and local communities. It examined church buildings open to the public and being used for Christian worship. This includes churches, chapels, meeting houses and church halls but excludes cathedrals. In the UK, the total social value of church buildings calculated so far is at least £12.4 billion: roughly equal to the total NHS spending in England on mental health in 2018. Cost benefit analysis shows that for every £1 invested in church buildings there is a Social Return on Investment (SROI) of £3.74 using the most conservative methods, with some wellbeing valuation methods estimating the SROI to be up to £18.10. The House of Good study follows a methodology that is consistent with HM Treasury’s The Green Book, the UK Government’s key source of guidance on how to assess a policy’s economic and social value. The evaluation is divided into two key sections on market and non-market value. This report has, at almost every stage, used the most conservative estimates and has not included all areas of social and community care. It also does not include other areas of potential value for church buildings such as tourism, heritage and non-use value.


Find out more: www.houseofgood.nationalchurchestrust.org/ M30


Keep your church in good repair by using MaintenanceBooker. Register for free! Provided by NCT Heritage Services Ltd and 2buy2


T: 0330 058 3951 E: enquiries@maintenancebooker.org.uk W: www.maintenancebooker.org.uk 27


M31


Market value £1.4 billion: the direct economic value created by the running, staffing and hiring out of church buildings. £200 million: the replacement cost of social and community services, like food banks, youth groups, mental health services. £850 million: the replacement cost of volunteers’ time.


Non market value £165 million: the wellbeing value to volunteers. £8.3 billion: the wellbeing value to the hundreds of thousands of people who benefit from social and community services provided in, or with the help of, churches. £1.4 billion: the wellbeing value of attending church services.


This £8.3billion is made up of: £7 billion annually through the distribution of food to those in need and food banks £900 million a year in the counselling and mental health services their volunteers provide £400 million a year in the youth groups put on, and £127 million through addiction support services.


In the period 2004 - 2018, forty percent of closures of Church of England churches were in the most deprived ten per cent of parishes in England. A recent Church Buildings Council report found that churches in the most deprived parishes in the country are far more likely to struggle than those in less deprived areas and even more likely to close.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40